Forum:Whats acceptable ad policy?
Rej's curiosity asks for help The problem of revenue to pay for the site won't go away if we move. Wikia has been a good host (intrusive ads excluded). So my curiosity is wondering what constitutes acceptable ad policy? My current gripes are the ads that distract from the content of the site. Especially ads that appear inside the content do so. Small adjustments Small adjustments would be much more acceptable than current practice. Examples: * Banners appearing above a heading instead of just after * Unanimated ads or ads that cease animation after 10 repeats ** The ads I put up with on yahoo go quiet unless the mouse rolls over them. ** That would be acceptable. * All Advertising clearly marked as advertising. ** So it is not confused with content. ** Even for an instant. * Ads that do not show gory details of the human anatomy. **Several ads for dentistry appear at times on the Baron's page and seem to imply he has bad teeth. * Ads should also not overlay existing content or sidebar navigation. Monitoring what we get My current thinking is that getting what we want means monitoring what we get. The idea that you can avoid some more egregious ads by logging in seems overall detrimental to the site. I know there are ways to turn that off per user or per page. I've even seen the preference once. Where the preference is hiding is not obvious. I would also like to see a deal that would allow a site to opt out of the ads off for logged in users policy in return for some other considerations. Wondering? My curiosity is wondering what other users of this site think. Working out our thoughts will help whether we move or stay. Our wiki deserves to have a well stated ad policy if we are to move because of it. --Rej ¤¤? 20:09, 23 August 2009 (UTC) ---- : Rej, you sum things up well as to what we would accept/not accept. The problem is that with Wikia, we aren't given a choice. Our visitors, who are here just casually to look something up and don't want to create an account to do so have even less choice. When we move, we CAN pick and choose - and depending on who hosts us, some Project Wonderful and Google text ads can just go right back into supporting the server and bandwidth costs. Check out Project Wonderful, it seems like a great system - and if it's good enough for the Studio, it's surely good enough for its wiki. (Opting out is a coding I have no clue how to construct, however. Maybe somebody else does.) -- Corgi 23:47, 29 August 2009 (UTC) :: Hi Corgi. Thanks for your comments. Whether we go or stay we should have a clearly stated policy of what is acceptable or not in a hosts ad policy. The wikia ad policy problem is larger than just our wiki. It is a problem for the whole farm of wiki's. I've read the discussions. The big win is finding a solution that works for us, them and everybody else. What they have right now is a killing policy. It killed the joy of being hosted by them at least for m'''. She is spearheading our exodus. :: If we leave the problem of the resources to maintain the wiki come on to our shoulders. How much those resources will be is unknown. Whether we will find a suitable permanent site or become nomadic has to be faced also. I imagine '''m's will is strong enough to overcome all of these problems. Still, I would like to see an option where we can stay explored. :: I have discovered the way to individually opt-out of the ad-off policy. Once logged in, under preferences, under the skins tab there is a box to check to see ads as others see them. I have check mine that so I am monitoring ads. Currently the ones I come across are not much worse than I put up with for my yahoo mail service. m''''s sensitivity is probably higher than mine. :: What I was proposing would be part of a negotiation with our host. If they tone down the ads to a level we can accept, all will see the ads all the time. This helps them get ad revenue. This helps us have continuous awareness that their ad policy falls within our guidelines. Really, small changes that they could live with would help everybody. --Rej ¤¤? 20:20, 30 August 2009 (UTC) ::: Just wanted to drop a note saying that yes, there has been discussion directly with Wikia and yes, they seem to be happy with their ad system. I did verify one last time, by email, before initiating the move. They do not have any changes in the pipeline. No paid accounts, no changes to how ads are placed. This is their preferred business model. I don't fault them for it. I just don't think it fits our needs. However, I do agree that we need an ad policy before finalizing the move. Thank you for suggesting this. ''— m'' (talk) 16:53, 31 August 2009 (UTC) ::: Rej, your optimism is admirable for existing, but really - they don't care that much about what we think. We're not big enough by ourselves, there would have to be an overwhelming collective-user response for them to take any notice, and unless you're turning into Rej D'Arc de Wikia, it's not going to get done. -- Corgi 20:34, 31 August 2009 (UTC) : For what it's worth, I didn't know there were ads. I think its because I have Camino's ad blocking functionality enabled. I thought the blank spaces were just the layout rendering poorly in my browser. Reichardt von Hamming 02:17, 31 August 2009 (UTC) :: I don't know if the timing is coincidental, but when I checked this site in a naked browser recently I noticed a reduction in ads, as well as a shift in content. From my perspective anyway. For me, personally, I would still prefer to move. If others want to wait and see if changes "stick", I would hope they speak up. ''— m' (talk) 16:53, 31 August 2009 (UTC)